Calamity Jane and Butch Cassidy riding in the Wild West

On the way out of Uyuni, we stopped at the gas station to fill up our tanks for the upcoming 200 Kms of dirt road. We had been driving in the morning sun for about 20 minutes when Chad saw a line of dark liquid in the dirt: what was it and where was it coming from? It took him a second to realize that Caroline's bike was losing oil and he rode as fast as he could to reach her and tell her to stop. By the time he caught up, the red light to signal that the engine oil was low had already came up and Caroline had stopped immediately. It looked really bad: she had no more oil in her engine and we thought that the trip was over for sure until we looked at what was going on. We were so lucky: it was only a bolt that had come lose and once tighten, no more leak! It was such a relief... Chad rode back to town and bought a few liters of oil and we refilled the bike. Unbelievable but when we turned on the bike, it sounded normal and as Caroline rode it, everything was fine.
A little further down the road, we had to stop again as Chad's windshield was coming lose from the rough road. As he was fixing it, two guys on motorcycles stopped to see if they could help. It had been a while since we had seen big bikes with all the equipment. They were both from Argentina and riding up north, hopefully to Mexico. We had a good time chatting and sharing our experiences with them. It is always so cool to meet fellow riders.

A 2-day horseback riding adventures in the canyons
The area around Tupiza was quite unexpected: it really looked like you were in a Western movie, with colorful rock formations all around you. The lat hour of motorcycle riding was exceptional as we were driving through this scenery that we had no clue belonged to South Bolivia. We had heard that this is the reason why Tupiza is a horseback rider's paradise as it just has the perfect setting to hop on a horse and wonder through the nearby canyons for hours. As we reached town, there were several agencies that offered riding journeys, from a few hours to a few days. We had been riding horses a few times on our trip but never more than for a few hours. We felt brave enough to step it up and sign for a 2-day tour: we knew our behind was going to pay for that but it seemed to be an opportunity we could not miss. Before leaving for our adventure, we took a rest day in town to catch up on fascinating things such as taking care of our 2009 taxes and similar things. The day after, we would leave on our adventure.

The travel agency had prepared us a good breakfast so that we would start the day well. We were provided all the equipment we needed to look like a real cowgirl and cowboy: a hat, a bandana to protect against the dust and chaps. We did look like the real deal as we met with our horses, a white one for Chad called Moro and a brown one for Caroline called Uracan: we were sure they were impressed by us! We took a few pictures on the horses to keep a memory of how good (and with no pain) we looked as we left. Three girls from Israel would join us for the morning and then we would continue further south as they would go back to town. We started slow and easy and our guide, Jose, told us that if we wanted to gallop, we could just ask him and he would let us know what area would be safe to do so. All around us, there were just canyons, the desert and cactus, with unique rock formations and bright colors. We were two cowboy and cowgirl, riding in the desert with our two wonderful horses. You can call us Calamity and Butch for the rest of this story...

Riding back from our first canyon, we continue south as the girls were returning towards Tupiza. So far, we had taken it easy as the girls were novice to horseback riding and afraid of galloping. We would try our skills at this exercise after lunch. We arrived at a long bridge that was circled with tall and beautiful bright red rocks. There was also a little picnic area close to the rocks and the brown river: the perfect spot for our lunch. Jose pulled out his cell phone and played old dance music while we were enjoying our sandwiches, tamales and fruits... we were hungry! We left the site and had to cross a river, the water coming up to the chest of the horses. We were impressed at how easily they took us to the other bank. Back on harder ground, it was time to try out a faster pace. We pushed the horses to gallop but they both went through a painfully long trot phase that our behinds really did not like. We were asking the guide how we could push the horses and he gave Caroline a small wooden stick that when she tried, worked wonders. Uracan was now galloping real fast and it was a lot of fun... until a truck came on the road. Uracan stopped abruptly, surprised by the presence of the vehicle, but as soon as the road was clear, he went straight back into galloping without Caroline asking him anything. She could not make him stop and he was going faster and faster to the point where she lost her sunglasses. And then it happened: he finally stopped and Jose even found the sunglasses. The whole thing had been a little scary: that would be it, no more galloping today. We would take it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

Good company ifor our night in a small village

We were quite close now from our basic accommodation for the night in a small village right in front of colorful cliffs along the river. It was about time because our behinds were seriously hurting. We arrived at the simple house with a big room filled with single beds; it was good to leave our horses and we walked funny for a while, our legs arched liked real cowboys. We were not the first tourists at the house: there was a French girl, Pamela, and two Israeli guys, Gal and Eyal. Their behinds too were hurting and there were resting a little after the day's ride; so did we for a while. Dinner was being cooked by the women living there and we took a small sunset walk in the village before coming back to the house. The colors were amazing: the red and yellow mountains and cliffs with the earth colored houses and church. It was like walking in a painting, just perfectly coordinated. After that, we had a great time sharing dinner with the other folks while our guides put on some Reageton music to spice up the ambiance. It was a very fun night and we all stayed up for a while, talking about our travel experiences and joking. It was much more fun that we had hoped for given that we were in such a tiny village.

The next morning, we all enjoyed breakfast while our guides were feeding and preparing the horses. It so turned out that we would all be riding together today. We noticed real quick that the Israeli loved galloping and were pushing their horses quite hard, which had the effect of pushing ours to gallop as well. It was quite crazy and almost the opposite of the day before: we were rarely walking and galloping a lot. It was so much fun, feeling the power and speed of the horse, our heads in the wind. We were smiling and laughing until the guides told us to slow it down since we were close to the river banks and the ground could be unstable and dangerous for the horses. So we took it easy, unfortunately getting eaten by the mosquitos, but really liking the landscape with the tall grass. It was much more tranquil than riding on the path where we had encountered cars from time to time. Then we eventually crossed the river a few times, the brown water sometimes very high on the horses but they were doing great. We finally stopped for picnic close to a giant erect rock formation and the guys went for a dip in the water. It was a great afternoon and strangely, our behinds and back were hurting less than the first day.

The last part of the ride was probably the most tiring as we galloped so much, one of the Israeli racing Caroline as they both had the fastest horses. She had no clue a horse could go that fast and it was all crazy entertaining! We were glad that they had joined us to make it a more eventful ride. We returned in Tupiza much earlier than anticipated since we had gone so fast but it allowed us to get everything ready for the next day, when we would be crossing into Argentina. We also had a drink and dinner with Pamela, the French girl, before she took the bus that night to La Paz. We were all still so excited and happy that we did a 2-day horseback ride. Everything had been perfect and well beyond our expectations: the horses, the guide, the landscape, the people we met and the food. It was our first “longer term” experience on horses and for sure to be remembered for a long time. Granted the next day, all our body parts were aching, probably from the hard gallop, but it felt like a small price to pay for having had such a good time.